The end of World War II led to the United States' emergence as a global
superpower. For war-ravaged Western Europe it marked the beginning of
decades of unprecedented cooperation and prosperity that one historian
has labeled "the long peace." Yet half a world away, in China,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, and Malaya--the fighting never really
stopped, as these regions sought to completely sever the yoke of
imperialism and colonialism with all-too-violent consequences.
East and Southeast Asia quickly became the most turbulent regions of the
globe. Within weeks of the famous surrender ceremony aboard the U.S.S.
Missouri, civil war, communal clashes, and insurgency engulfed the
continent, from Southeast Asia to the Soviet border. By early 1947,
full-scale wars were raging in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, with
growing guerrilla conflicts in Korea and Malaya. Within a decade after
the Japanese surrender, almost all of the countries of South, East, and
Southeast Asia that had formerly been conquests of the Japanese or
colonies of the European powers experienced wars and upheavals that
resulted in the deaths of at least 2.5 million combatants and millions
of civilians.
With A Continent Erupts, acclaimed military historian Ronald H.
Spector draws on letters, diaries, and international archives to
provide, for the first time, a comprehensive military history and
analysis of these little-known but decisive events. Far from being
simply offshoots of the Cold War, as they have often been portrayed,
these shockingly violent conflicts forever changed the shape of Asia,
and the world as we know it today.
